EMERSON HOUGH - TYPED NOTE SIGNED 05/11/1918 - HFSID 295997

EMERSON HOUGH
The Western novelist and conservationist writes about bass fishing in Texas and Oregon.
Typed Letter signed: "E. Hough", 2 pages, 5¾x8. Chicago, Illinois, 1918 May 11. On personal letterhead to Heppner Blackman, San Antonio Express. In full: "Thank you for your kind letter of April 25th, forwarded from the Saturday Evening Post, as I wrote the "Out-of'-Doors" story that you mention. I have myself in childhood eagerly soaked horse hairs in a bottle, waiting for them to turn into snakes. In fact, I believe that our youthful imagination did sometimes declare that they turned into snakes, although sober second thought inclines me today to believe otherwise. I presume that there are streams in Texas where the bass would take a fly - I have seen some wonderful bass water, for instance along near New Braunfels, and there are a great many rivers in Texas which are full of bass. It is all a question of finding them in shallow water where they are feeding on the surface, if you wish to take them on the fly. I have never fished the Hood River in Oregon, but have fished the Rogue River further to the south. Excellent sport there at times. I hope you will manage to get out and have a little fun this season. I used to go down to Texas very often, and always had a good time, mostly shooting. Yours sincerely," [signature] P. S. What has become of my old friend Colonel O. C. Guessaz?" Emerson Hough (1857-1923) passed the bar exam, but went into journalism instead. After traveling in the American West and becoming a friend of Marshal Pat Garrett, he became western editor of Forest and Stream magazine, and later wrote the "Out of Doors" column for the Saturday Evening Post. He wrote popular historical novels, most set in the West. Two of these, The Covered Wagon (1922) and North of 36 (1923), became two of the first feature-length Western movies. Hough, a strong supporter of Theodore Roosevelt, was an ardent conservationist, lobbying for establishment of the National Park System and for criminal punishment of poachers on federal land. During World War I, he a leader of the American Protective League, arguing for deportation of anarchists "disloyal citizens". Normal mailing fold.